ABSTRACT
In the academic year 1945/6, the Central Committee of Jews in Poland had six schools with Polish as their language of instruction, one with Hebrew and 18 with Yiddish. In October 1944, at the initiative of the Jewish communists-members of the Polish Workers' Party-there was established the Central Committee of Jews in Poland, which was supposed to unify all the legal Jewish parties, to coordinate social activities and to represent the Jewish population to the Polish authorities. The existence of Yiddish culture in Poland was treated by the majority of the Polish society as a means of separation, without any understanding of the significance of this culture; this common attitude was bitterly noted by David Sfard in his speech in 1956, on the occasion of the millennium of the Polish state. The emigration of 1968 was followed by a significant break in activities of all Jewish organizations. Positive changes could be seen again only during the Solidarity period in 1980-1.
